Information Centric Networking (ICN) is a concept that evolved from Project Xanadu in 1979 based on the proposition than networking was to be less about connecting a specific human to another specific human, and more information centric. This concept was further refined by Van Jacobsen's “Dissemination Networking” which evolved into a first implementation called Content Centric Networking (CCN) in 2006. The most active definition of Information/Content Centric Networking is Named Data Networking (NDN) which has been researched by UCLA REMAP.
NDN, as the most state of the art ICN & CCN, leverages replication of information, information which may reside in multiple locations. This contrasts with Internet Protocol (IP) networking which relies on addressing to identify a single source of information and a single destination for the information. NDN does not require IP, TCP, or UDP protocols, but can operate over them as an overlay just as it can operate over bare Ethernet. To date, the Internet has been striving to serve information largely through the deployment of Content Distribution Networks (CDN) over IP networking leveraging IP redirection. CDN networks are often based on proprietary technology and often have content specific overlays (e.g. video) to treat that traffic differently. Over half of today's “Internet” traffic does not traverse the Internet Core, but instead traverses a CDN.
In contrast, NDN has demonstrated a superior value proposition through stronger security, scalability, application coding simplification, highly scalable routing, simplified network stack for the Internet of Things, elimination of the complex wireless IP persistence overlay, rapid network/router switching when mobile, efficient multi-destination multi-source networking, and enhanced congestion control. It is anticipated that NDN solutions will begin the commercial proof of concept and deployment in the 2018/19 timeframe particularly for military, Internet of Things, and mobility deployment.
NDN forwards content based on the Universal Resource Identifier (URI) instead of resolving the URI to an IP address. NDN has two different types of packets: interest packets and data packets. Forwarding is highly programmable. Interest packets are generally forwarded towards all next hops with the best match to the URI's hierarchical name. If an interest packet hits a dead end, it is forwarded back to its last branching point to deliver failure messages to inform the nodes along that branch path that that content is not available along that path. If the interest packet finds the desired URI content, assuming the interested node was authorized to access the content, the content is forwarded as data packets back along the path the interest packet successfully took. As the data packets are forwarded towards their interested node destination the data packets may undergo a wide variety of content and non-content specific treatment not the least of which is caching (through an integrated “Repo” app) of that content to facilitate mobile users and to permit accounting for content popularity. In NDN it is assumed that most network nodes have some degree of storage to facilitate caching.
Routing in NDN is highly flexible with most recent implementations being based on Link State Routing. Instead of identifying the IP subnets reachable by a network node and its links, content is advertised by content providers as available through NDN's hierarchical naming structure. Other routing implementations are feasible, like Greedy Geographic Routing.
For clarity, the description of NDN and ICN hereinabove is high level and intended only to provide a limited background on the nature of NDN routing and NDN applications in order to simplify disclosure herein. Only a limited relevant NDN description is provided herein.